Many factors go into influencing people about your brand, and packaging is one of those factors. Packaging is a very crucial part of a business, and it represents your brand and vision. The right packaging will make your product different from that of your rivals. In this post, we will walk you through some simple steps that will help you create a unique packaging design.
Know The Details Of Your Product
Unless you know the details of your product, you won’t be able to create a good and unique product. List down some of the main features of your product, such as the weight, storage temperature, number of items, and other important details. Once you have all these points, you can use them as reference points while planning the packaging.
Know Your Customers
Knowing your customers is very important not only for packaging purposes but for other business operations as well. Here are some important things that you should know about your client:
- The average age of your clients
- The place from where your clients generally buy your products
- How do your customers dispose of the packaging
- The place from where your majority of clients belong to are they mostly local clients or international
- All of these questions will help you in understanding your customers.
Focus On Your Sales Channels
The next thing you should do is prepare a list of; the sales points you are using, such as the supermarket, online stores, street kiosks, or your website. Now think about how your products will be kept in these sales channels- whether or not your products will be visible to your customers or not.
In case you sell your products online and offline, the packaging will differ in both cases. In the case of offline stores, a customer usually prefers to inspect each product personally; however, that is not possible in the case of online stores. Therefore, you will have to create stylish and eye-catching packaging that will look good on photos for your online stores.
Choosing The Right Packaging
There are so many packaging options available nowadays- from custom presentation boxes to plastic bags- so which one should you go for? The packaging you should opt for again depends on the product you sell. An important thing to remember is that the packaging should cost you less than making your products. You will have to shortlist your options and then choose the one that meets all the criteria.
Choose The Right Wrapping.
Generally speaking, there are three types of wrapping:
- Inner wrapping
- Outer wrapping
- Packaging
You already know a lot about packaging in the first four steps, now let’s talk about the other two wrappings.
Outer wrapping: It is used to maintain the quality of the product. For instance, you could wrap the jeans in a paper bag to protect them from dust.
Inner wrapping: It is unnecessary for all the products. Usually, fragile items like showpieces require both inner and outer wrapping.
Plan Your Brand Design
After you decide on the wrapping and packaging for your product, it is time to focus on the design. If you have a brand, then you can pass on the brand book to the packaging designer. In case your business is new, talk to the designer about the look of your packaging.
Fill In The Required Details
Packaging should never be left empty, and it should contain important details about the product. A packaging generally has the following information on it:
- Name of the brand
- Name of the product
- Picture of product
- Logo of brand
- Quality certification
- Manufacturing and expiry date
- Bar code
The information you will print on the packaging also largely depends on the product you are selling.
The Packaging Shouldn’t Confuse The Customers
The skin care product manufacturers must keep in mind that the packaging they go for shouldn’t confuse their customers; rather, it should make it easy to know what the product is like. The images you use on the product should be relatable; people should understand what the product is about from the packaging itself. For instance, a bottle of energy drink shouldn’t look like a bottle of juice; otherwise, your customers won’t understand your product.
Where Will You Get Your Packaging From
It is very important to know where you will get your packaging from. If you have decided that you will prepare to package yourself, you have to decide the materials you will be using and the equipment you will be using. You will also have to consider if you want to outsource the packaging part or not; if you have decided to hire somebody to provide your packaging, then how you will contact them. You will have to ask these questions to yourself and then decide what works well for you.
Decide Your Budget
Finally, you will have to decide your budget. Budget allocation for packaging is something that you should do as soon as possible. You don’t want to spend too much money on the packaging, but at the same time, the packaging should protect the valuable product inside it and look good also. The packaging costs can be divided into two parts:
- Non-recurring costs: Non-recurring costs are those costs that you have to incur only once, such as the cost of designing the packaging.
- Recurring costs: These costs will occur every time you make packaging; it is the cost per unit or marginal cost. It depends on several factors such as the cost of the material, the salary of the packers and so on.
You have to keep both these costs while deciding the budget for the packaging.
Bottom Line
Most people don’t realize this, but the packaging is an integral part of selling the products. When customers receive the products, the products, and the packaging should make them buy from you again and again. More importantly, the packaging should be such that it protects the products inside the package; there is no use in investing in packaging that does not protect the product inside it.